Blanks + New Year = dumb

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... or reenactors.
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I don't know many reenactors who stand out in front of their homes, in street clothes, and fire modern weapons filled with live ammo into the air.

And as for blanks - how many people who shoot guns in the air during holidays or other celebrations actually bothered to load up with blanks for the occasion? Chance are not a whole bunch.
 
With all the threads on "zombies", we might suspect that a "reasonably prudent man" would stay inside locked doors when the zombies walk about at night. Just the same, a reasonably prudent person might avoid being outdoors or in any direct line of fire when the idiots shoot in the air on New Years Eve. It is not going to stop in our lifetime, so preach all you want, but act in a manor of safety to yourself and family first. If you want to call the cops, go ahead. As several have indicated, the police often hide first, then respond 20-30 minutes later. SOP. As far as tolerating a neighbor for 2 hours at night, that goes beyond reasonable. I shoot in a rural area all the time, during daylight, and tolerance for that is marginal by the neighbors, and I'm in the country. Even being a pro-gun avid shooter, I would not condemn anyone for calling the cops to halt two hours of shooting on NYE.
 
Considering people have recently gotten shot for having a water nozzle for a garden hose in their hand, I surely wouldn't want a firearm in my hand, no matter what I' m firing.
 
Just the same, a reasonably prudent person might avoid being outdoors or in any direct line of fire when the idiots shoot in the air on New Years Eve.
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That's exactly the problem - when shooting in the air, there is no "direct line" of fire. You don't know where that bullet will land any more than I do. Should everyone stay indoors after dark on holidays because some dim-bulb decides to crank off a few rounds outta his deer rifle or carry piece somewhere in the neighborhood?
 
As far as I have experienced, New Years is the only holiday with airborne projectiles (well, maybe 4th of July). No, you shouldn't HAVE to stay inside, ever. But if there be shootin' going on outside, how about standing under an overhang til it stops? Considering the number of rounds discharged around the country on NYE, the number of casualties is relatively small...maybe not enought to call it all off....skydiving may be more dangerous. And if you have a BP vest, what the hell, maybe one could start a fashion trend........
 
I lit off a big string of fire crackers at 12am, then swept up all the paper and put it in the trash.
 
Where I live, you only hear fireworks discharged in magazine capacity groups as fast the fool's finger can work the trigger. Last night I was shocked, shocked to hear a neighbor discharging a lung powered horn!
 
Ive fired my gun on previouse fourth of july celebrations. But I shot mine into a dirt berm. Where I knew what was behind it and made certain it wouldnt hit any rocks and ricochet first. I dont get why ppl think shooting up into the air is safe? Its much safer to discharge your firearm down into the ground. You get the same boom sound that your after and as an added bonus you know where your bullet went.
 
Having grown up in the south I can attest that my neighbors did not/still do not load up with blanks. They also fire straight up with little thought as to where the shot is going to come back down. Also, it does not have to be New Years they just do it whenever the mood strikes them. The sheriff didnt care then, and the currently elected one dosent care now.
 
kingpin008 said:
I don't know many reenactors who stand out in front of their homes, in street clothes, and fire modern weapons filled with live ammo into the air.

And as for blanks - how many people who shoot guns in the air during holidays or other celebrations actually bothered to load up with blanks for the occasion? Chance are not a whole bunch.
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I'd bet not a whole lot of them go outside and fire live rounds into the air to celebrate, but that's not what you said...

kingpin008 said:
Not only is it a bad idea, it's pretty low-class as well.

I mean maybe it's just me, but when I think of people celebrating events with random gunfire, I think of trailer trash, gangsters, or militant tribal idiots
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Just pointing out that people do celebrate holidays with gunfire.
And the title of the thread concerns blanks, not live rounds.
But I agree with everyone that haphazardly shooting live ammo into the air is an extremely irresponsible thing to do.
 
Real bad idea IMO

...

I would think "if it is a real firearm" then firing anything from it (what, if nothing, comes out of it) is still a BIG BUST and especially for the New Year, 4th of July, that would bring out some angry PO's and one could say goodbye to that gun and, quite possibly, expect when one, "finally", gets it back it will be used/abused, not as you last saw it..

Revenge is a funny thing within the law with certain items/things


Ls
 
Doesn't matter if they are live rounds or blanks; it's stupid either way. We're not a bunch of cave-dwellers living out in some desert under some medieval-style cultural norms where shooting guns into the air for anything is considered normal. We're supposed to be better than that... but I guess many aren't. Sad.
 
Sharp, you are arguing this point to a crowd who wear ear plugs, under ear muffs while hunting with flak jackets and a 72 hour bag :)
 
Depending on where you live, I can see this. Not my thing, my firearms are not toys. There is a locality near me that does this every new years eve. it is a tradition. I would tell your friend, if he can get approval from the local PD like the locality near me does, then maybe you'd consider it.

Without that approval he is discharging a firearm in city limits, even IF that is legal, I am sure the police responding to a shots fired call will ensure his new years was not happy.
 
actually, with some pushing from the big fireworks vendor the next county over, the legalized firework for new years, less gun fire that way

And that said, it was cool to see a few thousand dollars (one guy had at least 4" shells) go up in smoke, and I don't think I heard any gun fire, but it was a little loud. Oh and that was just in my neighborhood.
 
I'd say it was a very wise choice not making the blanks for the friend. There is no need to get yourself wrapped up in another persons possible arrest. I agree that firing a blank is still discharging a firearm and therefor in violation of the city law.
 
So you say "no" and the guy fires off live rounds instead.

We're not a bunch of cave-dwellers living out in some desert under some medieval-style cultural norms where shooting guns into the air for anything is considered normal.
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Speak for yourself.:)
 
I'm kind of smiling here, as some of the above posters indicate that firing guns at New Years will p/o the cops, and that they will come and arrest the shooter. This seems to come from the "civilized" parts of our society (CA, SC, etc), where people have become more peaceable, respectable, and the police keep the peace. Why, I can see a cop in East LA (the civilized So. CA area) rushing over to the "man with the gun" call called in at midnight NYE, and throwing that guy into cuffs, seizing the gun, and turning it over to CSI to prove it had recently been fired, residue on the guy's hands swabbed, bagged & tagged, etc. In my world, the cops are generally overwhelmed by calls in general, and know that it is a waste of time to attempt to enforce the gun laws against a multitude of violators at one time, and that more serious crimes abound, UNLESS they are witnessing the shooter themselves, and it become CONVENIENT to arrest the shooter on sight. Even then, in many jurisdictions, it might result in disregarding more serious calls that will arise, while being tied up on the lesser discharging firearms charge. To think that police opinion, whether or not they like people shooting in the air, etc, can ever really do anything about it, is probably optimistic at best. The police are also charged with using discretion, and budgeting their efforts to effect the BEST law enforcement they can at the moment. On New Years Eve, they are not going to make a big difference in aerial shooting. Only voluntary social change will change this tradition, and possibly even government "cracking down" will only result in an INCREASE of the practice.
 
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good idea to go with your gut. if you felt that it was a bad idea you would have been wrong to do it.....thats as simple as it gets.
 
Sharp said:
To go ouside and crack off rounds along with hundreds and thousands of others insures annonimity, and allows them to defy the law collectively. If you took that away, they would possibly get more repressed, and more dangerous.
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Numerous cities across the nation have now installed sound triangulation systems.
There is a few that go by different names.
These can pinpoint fairly well the location of a gunshot.
With different microphones set up the sound reaches some quicker than others. The difference allows them to determine where the sound came from.
Here is just one such company that shows a map of places that use their technology:
http://www.shotspotter.com/solutions/locations.html


They use something similar in Iraq and Afghanistan including on moving vehicles to locate the direction and distance of a shooter. Such as the various Boomerang systems, continually updated.
(Google Boomerang III gunshot)


Stationary ones work even better, and can be adjusted to compensate for slight topography variations.
They can also be adjusted to better ignore other loud noises and tell gunfire from other similarly loud noises.


They do little for real violent crime because most criminal shootings do not happen at a location of the shooter's but of the victims or in a random public place. But anyone firing rounds off in their backyard will trip the system.
In Los Angeles fireworks are illegal, and shooting guns is illegal.
There is probably even judges that will issue search warrants when presented with evidence that includes the system determining a gun was fired illegally at the location.
So at the very least it could be a way for local LEO to gain probable cause and entrance to poke around in homes.
Even if they do not respond in any way, a record will be created from the system of shots fired at the location. So investigators months or years later may be taking that information into consideration, or judges considering it at some point in the future.
(And you never even get to contest it, I wonder if hammering on metal or various other loud noises might go down on record as possible gunshots at your location.)

Some cities even make the information generated by such systems available to the public.
Here is Minneapolis:

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/crime-statistics/codefor/shotsfired.asp
You can look up the location of gunshots by week.


List of US cities just using one of such companies technologies, Shotspotter (there is other companies marketing similar technology that is used and not listed)
U.S. Locations

Baltimore, MD/Johns Hopkins University (2009)
Baton Rouge, LA (2007)
Bell Gardens, CA (2009)
Bellwood, IL (2007)
Beloit, WI (2008)
Birmingham, AL (2007)
Boston, MA (2007)
Brockton, MA (2009)
Camden, NJ (2010)
Charleston, SC (2003)
Chicago, IL (2007)
Dallas, TX (2009)
East Orange, NJ (2006)
East Palo Alto, CA (2007)
FBI (two systems) (2007)
Gary, IN (2005, four expansions)
Glendale, AZ (2002)
Harrisburg, PA (2009)
Irvington, NJ (2008)
Jefferson Parish, LA (2010)
Los Angeles County, CA
(2007, two systems, two expansions)
Milwaukee, WI (2010)
Minneapolis, MN (2006)
Montgomery, AL (2009)
Mount Vernon, NY (2009)
Nassau County, NY (2008)
New Haven, CT (2008)
Newark, NJ (2008)
NLECTC (2007)
North Charleston, SC (2004)
Oakland, CA (2006)
Paterson, NJ (2007)
Prince George’s County, MD
(2009, one expansion)
Redwood City, CA (1996, one expansion)
Richmond, CA (2009, one expansion)
Riviera Beach, FL (2009)
Rochester, NY (2006)
Saginaw, MI (2008, one expansion)
San Francisco, CA (2007, three expansions)
South Gate, CA (2008)
Springfield, MA (2007)
St. Louis, MO (2008)
Trenton, NJ (2009)
Troy, NY (2008)
Washington D.C. (2006, two expansions)
Yonkers, NY (2009)
York, PA (2007)
Youngstown, OH (2009)
Click to expand...
 
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